In big games, it can pay to change your patterns

Updated 6:42 pm, Saturday, January 4, 2014

The 49ers' Jim Harbaugh (left) and Stanford's David Shaw (right) have each shown they can be stubborn when it comes to their play calling.

The 49ers' Jim Harbaugh (left) and Stanford's David Shaw (right) have each shown they can be stubborn when it comes to their play calling.

Photo: Ross D. Franklin, Associated Press

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PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 01: Stanford Cardinal head coach David Shaw looks on against the Michigan State Spartans during the 100th Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2014 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) less

PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 01: Stanford Cardinal head coach David Shaw looks on against the Michigan State Spartans during the 100th Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2014 in ... more

Photo: Harry How, Getty Images

In big games, it can pay to change your patterns

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Jim Harbaughhas last year's Super Bowl. David Shawhas last week's Rose Bowl. Maybe they talked it over in some waterfront dive where they weren't noticed or bothered, just two guys with ball caps pulled down low.

They swapped family news, talked some ball.

The fans and media, they have no clue. We've forgotten more football than they'll ever know, yet they tell us how we should've done it. Not that I read or listen to any of it.

Yeah, I'd like to put one of those wise-guy newspaper columnists on the headsets to call a play on third-and-long with the game on the line. Let's see how clever they really are.

If I'd thrown a play-action pass on that 4th-and-3 and it didn't work, it would have been, "Why didn't he stick with what got him to the Rose Bowl?"

And if I'd given Kaepernick more read-options in the Super Bowl or this season and he got Clay Matthews'd at the end of a run, they'd say, "You're an idiot for letting your quarterback run the ball!"

I was thinking about having Hogan run a bootleg on one of those fourth downs, but then I thought about the armchair quarterbacks and danged if I was going to let them dictate my play-calling.

Let's have one. I'm buying. Bartender!

What'll it be, boys, besides new pants?

New pants?

Didn't you guys see the wet-paint signs on those two barstools?

Knucklehead of the week: David Shaw

Surprise, spontaneity, expediency and adjustment to reality aren't necessarily signs of weakness in play-calling. In fact, the element of surprise is the very reason the playbook and the huddle were invented.

Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots

-- I have absolutely no stats or facts to back this up, but I'm saying Stephen Curryis knocking down more contested three-pointers, as opposed to wide-open shots. His threes are increasingly dramatic.

-- Memo to coaches: If fans or media are "second-guessing," that means they criticize you after your strategy goes haywire. If said critic yells from his/her couch or press-box perch before the play, "Please don't run the ball into the line again!" that's not second-guessing, that's first-guessing, and is not an infraction.

-- It's strictly superficial, but just to show fans it's a new day, Allen might want to swap out the visor (with tucked-in pen) for alternate headgear. Around the holidays, Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arianswas rocking a spiffy, Santa-red, snap-brim cap.

-- Dodgers management seems clueless about what to do with Yasiel Puig. His immature behavior is an on-going concern, and the big worry now is his driving: busted twice for reckless driving, most recently going 110 in a 70 zone, with his mom and two others in the car.

-- Then factor in that Puig batted .214 in the season's final month, and butchered up the NLCS. Tick ... tick ...

-- It's Puig's world, and we're all just pedestrians.

-- Vin Scully was a marvelous choice as grand marshal of the Rose Parade, but if they'd gone with Puig instead, the parade could've wrapped up in 15 minutes.

-- Maybe it's an L.A. thing. After the Rose Bowl, my cabbie to LAX crept around an ugly crash scene on the 105 freeway, then quickly sped up to 90.

-- Also with two serious speeding busts in the past year: Jadeveon Clowney. How about a Celebrity Knucklehead NASCAR race? Throw in Justin Bieber. Gentlemen, start your engines and stop your brains!

-- Dennis Rodman had some trouble before finally rounding up enough ex-NBA players for an exhibition game in North Korea on Wednesday, Kim Jong Un's birthday. Rodman's plea to skeptical recruits: "It's all love here." Sure, except for the human-rights violations, the nuclear threats and the execution of the esteemed leader's uncle. Or is that just tough love?

-- Tim Tebowsigns on as analyst on the new SEC Network. Really? The guy who comes off as a Miss America contestant explaining the need for world peace?

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